Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding the effect of yoga on periodontal health among Indian adults: A questionnaire study.

Abstract

Background: Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the structures supporting the teeth and has multifactorial etiology. Conventionally, management of periodontal disease involves non-surgical and surgical procedures, while LASER, phytotherapy are some of the adjuncts to the conventional methods. In India, complementary medicine and alternative medicines like yoga are gaining popularity for improving systemic health. However, the effect of yoga on oral or periodontal health has not been explored extensively.  Hence, this pilot study was designed to develop a validated, reliable, and structured questionnaire on knowledge, attitude and practice pertaining to the effect of yoga on periodontal health and systemic conditions in Indian adults. Methods: The KAP questionnaire was developed using a deductive approach, and a psychometric evaluation of the questionnaire was performed to evaluate reliability and validity. Initial content validation and test re-test reliability were assessed using kappa statistics with binary responses. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess the questions in the practice and attitude category with categorical variables. Further assessment of psychometric properties of the questionnaire was done using item response theory. The developed questionnaire has four principal sections: i)demography of participants, ii)knowledge, iii)attitude and iv)practice towards implementing yoga for oral health with primary focus on periodontal health. Results: The ICC for all the assessed questions was greater than 0.60 suggesting satisfactory stability. Internal consistency measured using Cronbach’s alpha for knowledge, attitude, and practice items were reported to be 0.632, 0.923, and 0.591 respectively and that of the KAP total was 0.632. Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that the questionnaire had an acceptable psychometric property for measuring KAP regarding yoga and oral and systemic health among Indian adults. The analysis of participant responses revealed that they had a medium level of knowledge regarding yoga and periodontal disease.